That seems to rather be missing Tolkien's point, however, which is all those gains are ultimately temporary: individuals all die, civilizations all fall, species all become extinct, and ultimately all molecules will lose all their heat energy. It’s not thst progress is impossible or not worth working towards: but it is always, and always will be, temporary in the long run.
Tolkien's experience of being a religious minority in Victorian England, and having first hand experience of Apartheid and the ugliness of Empire before surviving WWI, and writing about the "long defeat" after WWII under the threat of nuclear and environmental armageddon...his viewpoint is understandable, particularly since he was a historian.